The dust that the FedEx Cup threw up has settled, the trophy has at last been kissed (well, did Tiger Woods actually kiss it?) and a minor blip — to the tune of $10 million — has been recorded in Tiger’s retirement account. But four days after the low-key awards ceremony on the 18th green at East Lake in Atlanta, the question that the golf world has been asking still lingers: What to do with the FedEx Cup?

Of course, the very fact the question still exists suggests there is something wrong with the FedEx Cup when, in actual fact, it turned out an awful lot better than some cynics were predicting. Although the Tiger-less Barclays event in New York, the first of the four playoff tournaments, may have created considerably less noise than the PGA Tour would have liked, a good deal of genuine excitement was aroused. Viewer numbers were well up during the remainder of the playoffs. This was especially true during the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, where Woods and Phil Mickelson went at it in the final round and set up a potentially great climax to the season. Sadly, golf fans were denied the thrill of another Woods/Mickelson clash at the next tournament, the BMW Championship in Chicago, after Mickelson pulled out. Then, when Woods won so impressively, the writing was more or less on the wall.

Player absence is a major problem — Ernie Els (Deutsche Bank) and Padraig Harrington (BMW) also stayed away — and is undoubtedly Finchem’s greatest concern. To guarantee his experiment eventually succeeds, he will need all the top players playing all the events. By withdrawing, Woods, Mickelson, Els, and Harrington were making the very obvious statement that the FedEx Cup didn’t figure too highly on their list of priorities, and much of its significance was inevitably lost.

But how does Finchem get all the stars in the same city at the same time? Throwing money into the purse doesn’t guarantee him, or the sponsors, anything. Perhaps the most he can do is ensure the playoffs visit the right courses at the right time. That will be difficult, as Woods isn’t terribly keen on Westchester, home of the Barclays, while Mickelson has an appalling record at Chicago’s Cog Hill. But that might not be an issue next year, as the BMW is moving from the Windy City to St Louis. This then might upset Woods, who has four wins at Cog Hill and obviously loves the place.

Then there’s the problem of the players’ children heading back to school, an excuse Mickelson and Els both used, in part, to explain their non-appearance. The desire to be at home with the family invariably coincides with the start of the NFL season, which forced the Tour to come up with a new way of ending its season in the first place, but which it will never beat.

For the dual threats of football and school term schedules to disappear, Finchem may need to bring his playoffs forward a couple more weeks and thus shorten a season that he shortened last year to appease a number of players — mostly Woods — who insisted it was too long. That would separate the playoffs from the Ryder and Presidents Cups. But it would bring them back even closer to the majors, the WGC events and the Players Championship. All of a sudden there aren’t many “off” weeks in the year remaining. Fans might also lose sight of how these tournaments distinguish themselves from each other.

The points system might need tweaking, too. The year’s best player needs to win for the competition to be credible. This is a season-long points race after all, and not a one-off even such as the U.S. Open or Masters, where surprise winners are rare but add a certain mystique. It might have been better, though, to have more than five players that have a shot of winning the cup at the Tour Championship in the competition. Resetting the points at the end of the regular season and giving the playoffs extra weight was certainly a good idea. But perhaps the winner’s share of points in the playoffs need not be so great.

The winner’s prize and how it is paid should also be considered. Mickelson and several others made no secret of the fact they’d rather have a pile of cash to dive into on the 18th green, than have the money quietly accrue interest in some retirement fund over several years. Mickelson’s livelihood isn’t affected in the slightest by how the money is distributed. He’ll be okay either way. He simply saw this as a good opportunity for the tour to create some buzz and keep the viewers watching right up until the end of the broadcast. He’s not wrong. Most people would rather watch the winner get handed a surfboard check for $10 million (or how about be given it in a huge FedEx box?) and be asked what he’s going to do with it, than be informed the money had been stashed away safely — the player can spend it starting at 45 or when he retires, whichever is later.

For sure, Finchem has an awful lot to chew on in the coming weeks. With the Ryder Cup scheduled for the week following the Tour Championship next year, he will have to pull a masterstroke to get all the top players at all the playoff tournaments in 2008. He should, though, be pleased with the FedEx Cup’s first season. It culminated in the game’s best player overcoming a stellar field in Atlanta after four weeks of entertaining — and occasionally gripping — golf.